Anime

Last weekend was the Nan Desu Kan (Japanese for "What is it?) I attended with my eighth grader, Harrison, his friend, Nick, and Nick's father, Louis. For those of you not in the know, this was an anime convention. Anime being Japanese animated films and television shows. Think Pokemon. (Which you can regard as a kind of gateway drug for American children to the addiction that is anime.) The movie, "Spirited Away" (about a ten-year old girl who must deal with spirits and monsters before her parents, who have been turned into pigs, are returned to normal) by director Hayao Miyazaki, is a good mainstream example of the genre. Much of anime comes from manga. (This would be the Japanese version of comic books.) Certain video games also see to come under the anime umbrella, at least for convention purposes.

Anime consists of a great deal of fantasy, apparently much of it connected to Japanese mythology. I would not really know about that because while I wanted to sit in on the discussion of Japanese mythology as it is used in anime, Nick and Harrison voted for the improvisation troupe in the ballroom. (While everyone in the improv audience seemed to be having a great time, laughing and volunteering and yelling out stuff, I found it pretty much incomprehensible.) I thought of pulling rank and forcing the issue, but, really, I was only there to keep an eye on the boys. Next year, however, I may not be so nice.

So, the convention took place at the Denver Tech Center Marriott. The place was packed with people, more males than females, most of whom (and I'm talking an 80% or more, most, not a measly 51% most) wore costumes. Nick and Harrison did not due to the fact that ours was a last minute decision and they did not have time to assemble one. They were, however, thrilled to see all the people dressed up and would nudge each other and point, "There's Haruhi!". "Oh look! See? There's Grimmjow!" (Not to mention Soi Fan and Chiyo Chan's father, who is apparently a cat.) Many had dyed hair and a few had outsized, odd-colored contact lenses. Robes and samurai swords were popular. There was a character with an outsized shovel strapped to her back, but I was informed that it was really a spatula. I also saw a character from ghost busters (Louis assures me it was a cartoon show for a while, so it had a tenuous connection) and Hit-Girl (from the movie "Kick A**" which started life as a comic book.) School girl costumes abounded.

Now before you get all weirded out, the demographics for the convention run to the highschool and college age crowd. There were a few younger kids, but they tended to be accompanied by a parent. You could spot the parents by the dazed, "I really should be paying more attention to what my child is into", look in their eyes. The school girl costumes also probably deserve some explanation. In much of anime, at least the stuff I've seen, the heroes and heroines seem to be school age. They wear uniforms in Japan, hence if your favorite character is Haruhi Suzumiya, you need to wear a uniform.

Nick and Harrison loved every minute of it. My only objection is that they continuously roamed about the convention, not really settling on anything. I felt like I was trailing a pair of sharks. We were there seven and a half hours. The boys complained it was too short, but Louis and I were exhausted. I did promise Harrison we could attend next year's and stay longer. I'm not sure why I said that. At least I did not completely lose my head and say we'd go all three days.

Some favorite moments from the Nan Desu Kan:

We went to eat lunch at Wendy's, just outside the hotel. Amid all the people dressed in anime attire was the familiar red and white striped shirt and red cap. A teenage girl approaches the young man and says, "Waldo! I've been looking for you my whole life!"

In the room for the merchandise vendors it is very noisy. Lots of talking and laughing and buying and selling and packed with people. The loudspeaker comes on and immediately all the attendees stop talking, as only those in school or recently out of school have been trained to do. The speaker announces several names and finishes with, "Please go to the front desk, your parents are waiting for you." A collective "Ahhh!" goes up, laughter and then an instant return to previous noise levels.

Also in the vendor room, we pass an Asian woman with a stroller that contains a small dog in it. The woman sneezes and a teenager (blonde and blue-eyed) walking past breezily calls out, "Odaiji ni!" Which means bless you.

Golf

This Labor Day weekend Laurence and I and the boys went golfing. First let me say right now, I do not like golf. I don't understand a sport that needs a dress code. Nor do I think it is fair that if you take a swing and miss, it counts as a stroke. Especially for me. It's not like my score is a threat to anyone. And what about all the practice swings everyone else takes? Why don't those count?

Anyway, we went golfing. Our tee time was for a little after four in the afternoon. No one was scheduled to follow us. Laurence showed great far-sightedness in this. We took almost two hours to do five holes. Seriously. I shudder to think what would have happened with any real golfers behind us. We had to quit when it became too dark to see.

We did have fun, though. We played by the family rules, as opposed to the official rules. Our rules are way better. You can swing at the ball as many times as you want. If you hit a bad shot off the tee you can have a mulligan. Or two. If you get completely frustrated you can simply throw the ball as far as you can. If your shots are so bad you are sinking into the sandtrap of despair you can pick the ball up and start over at the next tee. Or you can just plop it on the green and putt. We putt in reverse order, closest to the hole goes first. It is much more efficient. And no one ever has to pick up their ball. (Thus eliminating untold opportunities to hurl accusations of cheating.) You never have to write a number on the score card higher than ten. You don't even have to write down your score. We try to keep it relaxed.

Laurence did well. He will never admit it, though. I think golfers are not allowed to acknowledge a good game because if they do the golf gods will curse them and their swing will immediately implode. I, on the other hand, regularly denigrate the golf world and so have no fear of the golf gods. If I have a good game, I will shout it from the rooftops.

That said, I had an awesome four and a half holes! (I omit the second half of the fifth hole because I could not see a thing.) All five holes were under ten strokes. Three holes took only six strokes. (No, the half hole was not one of them.) So you know how significant this is, in nine holes I am extremely lucky if two come in under ten. And I do mean lucky. I have no skills that apply to golf. Except walking. I am very good at walking. Unfortunately, walking does not make the ball go straight or very far. In fact, the rules seem to frown on walking while hitting the ball. You can see how this might limit me. Nevertheless, I did extremely well. Whether I will do well again, remains to be seen.

Stephen and Harrison had a good time because we let them drive the carts. Stephen took it seriously and drove quite well. Harrison had to be banned for a hole or two and then I only let him drive at about three miles per hour. Within two years they will both be driving. My hair has already begun to turn white.

Weather permitting I am sure Laurence will be dragging me out onto the course again. I'll let you know how it goes.

Blogs

This week I researched the blogosphere for ideas and direction. I had hesitated to do this before because I did not want to be discouraged by finding blogs similar to what I had in mind, nor by the superior writing skills of those in the ether.

I have to admit, my research was not extensive. I devoted maybe two hours to it. However, I did find out a few interesting things. The most relevant one, as far as I'm concerned, was that in the personal blog category (where I fit) the quality of writing was good, but nothing to be afraid of. (Here I cannot overemphasize that I looked at very few blogs. I am sure there are amazing, overwhelmingly soaring personal blogs out there, I simply did not do enough hunting to uncover them. Why would I? I'm not comfortable enough with this blogging thing to tell more than five people, let alone compare myself to some closet Edith Wharton.)

I did find a blog that made me smack my head on the table. Mommy Needs Coffee. (mommyneedscoffee.com) I went to a blog she'd written about Stephanie Plum novels (Misbehaving, Plotting and Sneaking My Plums) because I am reading one now. Her blog was funny, personable and concise. I refused to read anymore lest I lose heart but I recommend it to anyone else.

I felt safer exploring the blogs that have a gimmick. I love gimmicks, but do not have one myself. Julie and Julia began as a gimmick blog (The Julie/Julia Project at salon.com). Julie would cook all the recipes in the Julia Child cookbook within one year.

One I discovered months ago and periodically visit is cakewrecks.blogspot.com. It consists mostly of pictures of disastrous baked goods. I think this one particularly resonates with me because I am not a dessert person. Sweet things do not appeal to me. Living in a society that practically worships perfectly prepared sumptuous confections I get a bit nauseated at the sheer number of food magazine covers and cooking shows devoted to baked goods. For heaven's sake, even my subscription to Cooking Light showcases desserts on its cover. How Cooking Light can even justify devoting any reporting space at all, let alone an entire section each month, to dessert is beyond me. But you get my drift. Pictures of horrible cakes cheer me up.

A new one I found while out exploring is called 365 Days of Decluttering (365daysofdecluttering.blogspot.com). The premise is that every day for a year you get rid of something. I loved the initial premise and I hoped to hear about some oddities and pitfalls that occurred, but it seems a very tame and sincere effort to rid the blogger's life of crap and to help you do the same. Another blog along similar lines is guynameddave (guynameddave.com). He has a 100 Thing Challenge. He is trying to reduce his life down to 100 personal possessions (underwear does not count).

If you would like a more thorough website for getting your life under control go to Flylady.net. Marla Cilley is Flylady and she is funny and warm. Her refrain of "BabySteps!", although I have not visited her site in over a year, still resounds in my mind. (It is also why I feel a blog with five maybe readers is better than no blog at all.)

Pet blogs seem to be a trend. I looked at a few. They contain many pictures and not much writing. I don't find these very appealing, although some people do have very cute pets. I love my two pets, Piper the Dog, and Raymond the Horse, but I am not sure they do enough interesting things to be able to write about them every week.

A final category I noticed had to do with the blogger's personal demographic. Gay man, black woman, disabled veteran, to name a few. I glanced at one or two of these and the blogs did not seem to be inherently different than the other blogs. I think the label is simply to make them stand out from the crowd. As a white middle-aged female I will not be going that route anytime soon.

So, my research did reveal some paths I could take with this and some different approaches to blogging. I will be including some posts about my pets, which I would have done anyway, but now I know that pictures are critical to the animal blogs. (This will entail my learning to download pictures from Laurence's camera to my blog. Do not expect anything anytime soon.) I will also try to carve out a unique demographic from my bland background (I am an eighth Native American, though you'd never know it, so there may be a hook there.) And a gimmick, I really, really, really want a gimmick.

Mostly, I will just write and try to entertain.

Note: If you click on "View My Complete Profile" you will find links to some of the blogs I mentioned.